Jewel-Osco confirmed Wednesday that it will offer employment to some 450 workers at four Dominick’s stores it has acquired from the closing grocery chain.

The stores are expected to become part of the Jewel chain and parent company New Albertson’s Inc. early next year.

"The associates were part of the agreement and all will have the opportunity to continue," said Allison Sperling, a spokeswoman for Itasca-based Jewel-Osco. "However, because the transition will take some time, for now, they are still Dominick's employees."

Dominick's parent, California-based Safeway, announced Thursday that it would close all 72 stores in the Chicago grocery chain, which lost $35.2 million through the first 36 weeks of 2013. In addition to the stores acquired by Jewel, many of the locations are expected to be taken over by rival grocery chains as Safeway exits the market by early next year.

Jewel, the area's leading local grocery chain, with 176 stores and close to 30 percent of the market, is acquiring Dominick's stores at 1340 S. Canal St. and 2550 N. Clybourn Ave. in Chicago; 14200 S. Bell Rd., Homer Glen; and 1340 Patriot Blvd., Glenview. In March, Jewel was sold to Cerberus Capital Management as part of a $3.3 billion deal that included the Acme and Shaw chains and the rest of the Albertson's grocery chain.

Dominick's, which was started in 1925 as a corner market on the West Side, grew into Chicago's second largest grocery chain behind Jewel. Safeway bought Dominick's for $1.2 billion in 1998, incorporating it into the nation's second-largest chain.

Some 4,000 Dominick's workers are represented by UFCW Local 1546, with another 2,000 or so in UFCW Local 881. Teamsters Local 703 represents 65 drivers and 220 workers out of Dominick’s Northlake warehouse.

Dominick's and UFCW Local 1546 are working under an agreement that expired in 2012. The union has an active agreement in place with Jewel, which is essentially the same, according to a union spokesman.

Jewel and the union will meet in the coming days to negotiate moving the former Dominick's employees over to the Jewel contract, according to Sperling.

Eric Bailey, a spokesman for UFCW Local 1546, welcomed the news, but said the union wants to make sure longtime Dominick's employees retain their full benefits.

"We will be bargaining the effects of this transition," Bailey said. "It's essentially the same stores under different owners. We want to make sure that these workers are treated fairly, that they're not coming in as brand new employees off the street."